Papercraft
by McCoy
Summary: A story that follows the unlikely friendship of two young huntresses and the path they might take together. Starts easy breezy, but may get a little dicey in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

It was a seemingly unremarkable day at Beacon Academy. The school was just getting back into the swing of education after its students had finished enjoying a few weeks of freedom in between semesters. Textbooks were opened, teachers lectured, and young huntsmen and huntresses did their best to take in as much knowledge as they could.

That is, except for the ones that didn't. In one of the many lecture halls, a cheerful and energetic young girl was fighting to stay awake while a professor droned on about some topic that was surely very important to her future as a huntress.

Her partner gave her another jab in the side.

"Ruby!"

The drowsy girl's eyes snapped open for the third time in twenty minutes. She sleepily rubbed a hand in one of them while glancing at her attacker, giving her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, Weiss," she whispered back. The other girl gave her signature eye roll and returned her attention to the professor.

Ruby let her gaze linger just a bit longer. Weiss Schnee, her partner of more than a year, was as impressive as ever. Her posture was perfect as she jotted notes in her book, standing out like a torch next to every other student slouching over their desks. The quick bun she'd tied her white hair into that morning had been done hastily, but so skillfully that not a single strand was out of place. Sharp blue eyes flitted between diagrams at the front of the hall and her notebook as she worked. A long scar drew itself over her left eye, but the young woman was blessed with such good looks that the damage only seemed to enhance her beauty.

Returning her own attention to the lesson, Ruby rested her head in one hand as she tried to focus. She'd always had trouble with the more traditional parts of her education (not unexpected by her teachers, given that she'd been admitted under special circumstance and was two years younger than her classmates), while Weiss was an academic superstar. Since part of each girl's grade was dependent on the performance of the other, Ruby was frequently the target of her partner's frustration..

She jolted awake once more to the shrill noise of the bell ringing. Looking around, she just barely caught a glimpse of her partner's white hair slipping away through the lecture hall door. Grabbing her books, she ran to catch up.

Ruby only made it about two feet out of the door before something caught her hood and yanked her off her feet, making her let out a yelp of surprise before her rear end met the cold hallway floor.

"Ruby Rose, do you _want_ both of us to fail?" asked an irritated voice behind her. Ruby groaned in pain as she stood up and dusted herself off before turning around to face Weiss.

"Of course not!" she replied.

"And you understand that if you don't pull your weight, _my_ grades are affected?"

"I know, I know! Weiss, I'm really really sorry. It's just that being in that lecture hall just sucks the energy out of me, or something. I can barely keep my eyes open in there."

Weiss looked her younger partner up and down. Ruby certainly seemed to be awake and alert now.

"You've been getting enough sleep? Eating proper meals?"

Ruby nodded vigorously.

Weiss sighed and crossed her arms.

"Alright. Come back to our dorm after your classes are finished today. If you're just incapable of listening to Professor Port's lectures, then I'm going to go through the material with you until you've learned it."

"What? B-but Yang and I were gonna-" Ruby started, but Weiss Schnee cut her off with an icy glare.

"No partner of mine is going to be dead weight. We're studying tonight, and that's final. And don't give me any excuses about being late; you have super-speed."

As Ruby left for her next class, Weiss made for the dorm. She was still supposed to go to a lecture from Professor Peach, but since she'd already memorized the reading material on which the lecture was based, she opted to use the time to prepare for their study session instead.

Weiss entered their shared dormitory and was completely unsurprised to see Ruby's older sister, Yang Xiao Long, lounging on her bunk with a magazine.

"Hey, Weissy," said Yang cheerfully, blowing a huge bubble with her chewing gum and somehow not getting any of it on the wild bouquet of long blonde hair framing her face. Weiss gave her a polite half-smile and carried on toward her desk.

"Skipping class again, Yang?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Are you even going to study for Port's test tomorrow?"

"Nah."

Weiss couldn't help but feel a little annoyed with Yang as she rummaged through the desk for supplies. They were teammates, but not partners, so Weiss' grade wasn't affected by Yang slacking off. Still, it wasn't a practice she approved of.

"Speaking of skipping, what are _you_ doing here?" asked Yang. "Don't you have a class to get to?"

"I do, but I already know Peach's lesson today so I'm using the time to put together a lesson plan for Ruby. I'm making her study tonight instead of doing whatever stupid thing you were going to waste her time with."

"Aw." replied Yang with a dejected tone. She put her magazine down and pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the bunk.

"Well, Ruby's not dumb but she doesn't do the whole 'study' thing well. Good luck with that."

Weiss stopped mid-rummage to look up at Yang.

"How can you be so casual about this? Don't you want your sister to succeed?" asked Weiss.

"Obviously, yeah. But I know her pretty well, and I can tell you that plonking her down in front of a textbook isn't going to work as well as you might be hoping."

Yang's words echoed in her mind as she set out for Beacon's library. Weiss knew Ruby was having some trouble, but it was nothing a little Schnee ingenuity couldn't fix. She was sure of it.

Ruby entered the dorm an hour later to an unusual sight: The desk she shared with Weiss had been completely rearranged, organized and decorated with various learning implements. Her partner stood next to it, glancing back at her in greeting.

"Hi, Ruby. Come sit down," she said. Ruby obliged, quietly taking a seat at the desk. A fancy, sleek study lamp cast a white glow over the blank note paper in front of her. On either side of the paper lay an assortment of pens, pencils and rulers. A large scroll, like the ones the teachers used, sat propped up on the desk for easy online access. An odd-looking box lay on the floor next to the desk.

The young Rose looked up at Weiss.

"So, uh, what are we doing?" she asked the older girl.

"I'm glad you asked. Since the traditional teaching method used by Beacon's faculty isn't effective on you, I've researched many alternative methods that we're going to try, including some more esoteric ones used by the most esteemed private tutors in Atlas. In fact..."

Ruby looked back at the desk as her partner went into more detail. She had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

* * *

"Alright, let's try this one again: Where is the beowolf's perinimal gland located?"

Weiss stood patiently as she waited for Ruby's answer.

Ruby's brain struggled to find one.

Thirty seconds passed before she sheepishly looked up at Weiss and shrugged.

Weiss' textbook hit the ceiling.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND! We've gone through every method I can think of! I've literally asked you that exact question _and told you the answer_ two times earlier tonight! Even the _alligator_ didn't work, and that's how the last three kings of Atlas were groomed for the throne from childhood!" shrieked Weiss, glaring daggers at the reptile on the floor.

Ruby cowered as the verbal barrage continued. They hadn't really made any progress, and the sun had long since gone down. Ruby felt miserable and Weiss had lost every shred of her former dignity. The younger huntress dared to look at her partner while Weiss stopped hollering to catch her breath.

"I'm really sorry, Weiss! I don't get it either. I promise I'm trying, I just can't seem to get any of this stuff to stick. Please don't be mad, I really don't want you to fail because of me."

Something in the way Ruby looked at her caused a little puff of warmth in Weiss' chest, and she felt her frustration begin to melt away. She gave a tired sigh and let her hair down.

"Look, let's just get some rest and try again tomorrow. We can come back and study during lunch before Professor Port's test," said Weiss, walking toward her bed to slip into her nightgown. Ruby nodded silently, yawning as she got up to go brush her teeth.

As Weiss stood next to their bunk beds, she noticed a hint of red metal peeking out over the edge of the upper bunk: Ruby's weapon, Crescent Rose. Feeling curious, she stepped on her own bunk for a better view and peered down on Ruby's bed.

She'd seen Crescent Rose fully deployed many times, but never like this. The weapon lay atop Ruby's sheets in a million pieces – not broken, but meticulously separated and placed. Ruby must have stripped her down for maintenance this morning and never got the chance to put her back together because of their study session.

Weiss was stunned at the complexity of the weapon. There had to be at least several hundred tiny gears, rods and other mechanisms strewn across the bed. She had known the weapon was more mechanically sophisticated than her own Myrtenaster, but she had no idea it went this deep.

And Ruby had built this weapon from scratch? _Designed_ it? Her partner Ruby Rose, who couldn't even study for a simple Grimm Studies test?

"Isn't she beautiful?" asked Ruby, making Weiss jump. The younger girl had joined Weiss while she'd been gawking at Ruby's weapon.

"You really built this?" asked Weiss quietly.

"Yup!" she exclaimed, beaming. "In my first year at Signal. Well, she's changed a lot since then, but that's pretty much when Crescent Rose was born."

"I had no idea your weapon was so... complicated."

Ruby looked at Weiss with barely contained glee. She'd never had the chance to show off Crescent Rose like this since her Uncle Qrow first helped her make it.

"That," Ruby said, pointing at some of the parts, "is her main firing mechanism. And those are the compound blades & actuators that combine to make up her fully deployed scythe."

"And you know what every single one of these parts is for?"

"Yup."

Weiss grabbed a nondescript spring and held it up to Ruby with a questioning look.

"That goes in the firing chamber; it's a shock absorber that keeps her from shaking apart when I fire her standard ammunition. The thicker ones over there are mostly for the high velocity rounds."

The Schnee put it back and picked up a plain-looking metal rod, listening for another explanation.

"That's one of the connectors that the magazine port is fitted to."

She grabbed another important-looking doodad.

"Those are the synthetic muscles that help her transform quickly without needing a huge motor, since she's heavy enough already. And those are gears that help articulate the finer parts of her transformation and allow me to switch between modes on the fly. And _those_ are collapsible nanofiber rods that run the length of her handle; they keep her strong and rigid but also allow her to flex under stress so she won't break."

Weiss could hardly believe what she was hearing. She looked at Ruby with a rare expression of surprise.

"You really know this weapon inside and out, don't you?"

"Yeah. She's my baby," replied Ruby, looking down at Crescent Rose fondly.

It was then that Weiss realized Ruby knew her own weapon as intimately as Weiss knew Myrtenaster. While the rapier wasn't nearly as complex, Weiss still knew every facet of its construction, its distribution of weight, the way it would vibrate as she swung it through the air. Just from the way it felt when she struck with the blade, she could detect if something was amiss or repair was needed. It was this love she had for her own weapon, that she now knew Ruby shared for Crescent Rose.

She gave Ruby a genuine smile, climbing down from her bed.

"I'll let you put her back together so you can sleep. And... thank you for showing me how she works. She's pretty amazing."

The compliment made Ruby's cheeks burn. She squeaked a quiet thanks and quickly climbed into her bunk for the night. In the bunk below, Weiss wasn't sure if she had meant it for Crescent Rose, or Ruby herself. But what she knew for sure was that she'd discovered how she was going to tutor Ruby.


	2. Chapter 2

Three members of Team RWBY sat in the mess hall the next morning. Yang chatted with her partner, Blake Belladonna, while Ruby worked on her cereal.

"No Weiss today?" asked Yang, taking a break from her conversation. Ruby shook her head.

"She said she's getting something ready for lunch. Wants to make sure I don't bomb this test," she replied with a glum tone.

Blake glanced across the table at her, eyebrow arched.

"Are you really doing that badly, Ruby?" she asked.

"I guess," replied the younger girl with a half-hearted shrug. "I just keep falling asleep in Port's classes, so I guess I missed a bunch of stuff that's on the test today. I can't help it, though! He's so _boring."_

Yang grinned. "I think his stories are awesome. I wanna be able to wrestle a mother boarbatusk into submission, too."

Ruby stirred the spoon around in her bowl. She was still worried about the night before. Weiss hadn't seemed angry with her, but Ruby felt responsible for the wasted evening. When she'd woken up this morning, her partner had already left. The expression on Ruby's face didn't escape her older sister.

"Hey, cheer up Rube. You'll be alright," said Yang, giving Ruby a light pat on the back. "Weiss is a smart cookie, she won't let you down."

Ruby appreciated the sentiment, but it wasn't Weiss letting _her_ down that she was worried about. There was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that she was going to be directly responsible for making Weiss the first member of the Schnee family to have to retake a year of education.

The morning quickly passed, and Team RWBY's lunch period soon began. The moment her class ended, Ruby gathered her books and sprinted back to the RWBY dorm room. This was one appointment she was not going to miss.

She opened the door and started a greeting, but stopped when she noticed the room was suspiciously empty. The mess left from the night before had been completely cleaned up, and her partner was nowhere to be found.

It only took a few seconds for Ruby to notice an unusual detail: A cookie sat on the desk she shared with Weiss, next to a neatly folded piece of paper. She snatched the paper and read the words scribbled on it.

 _Ruby: Meet me at the edge of the Emerald Forest as soon as you see this. Skip lunch and just eat this on the way. -Weiss_

The cookie was, of course, gone by the time she finished reading the note. Ruby was already sprinting out the door as she swallowed the last morsel.

* * *

The white heiress was easy to spot against the earthy colors of the forest. She stood next to a sturdy old oak, against which rested a large leather satchel. Ruby jogged to a stop next to her, catching her breath.

"Good, you saw the note."

"Weiss, you could've just sent me a message on my scroll."

"I certainly would've if you didn't show up in another minute or two. Are you ready?"

Ruby drew herself up to her full height.

"Yes! Where should we start today, Weiss?"

Weiss looked at her as if to say something, but then turned back to the tree and withdrew a rolled-up piece of paper from her bag. She snapped her fingers as two small glyphs appeared at either end of the scroll. Following her hand motions, the glyphs guided the scroll to the tree, unrolled it and held it firmly against the trunk.

Staring down at Ruby was a life-sized picture of a beowolf, poised to attack. She gave it a confused look before glancing back to Weiss.

"Uh, I know what a beowolf is, Weiss. And we already tried flash cards last night," asked Ruby. "What are you gonna teach me?"

Weiss allowed herself a little smirk before reaching behind the trunk and grabbing the instrument of her victory. She immediately spun on her heel and threw it toward her red-hooded charge.

The younger huntress brought her reflexes to bear and caught Crescent Rose in one hand.

"I'm not going to teach you anything," said Weiss. " _She_ is."

Ruby looked from her partner, to her weapon and back again. Weiss stepped to the side and pointed at the beowolf.

"Kill it."

"But it's not-"

"Ruby, we don't have all day."

Ruby deployed her weapon in its rifle mode, and took aim. The sharp crack of gunfire echoed across the quiet afternoon landscape.

Weiss approached the target and inspected Ruby's marksmanship. The girl had put the bullet exactly where she'd need to in order to immediately halt all brain function. Weiss grinned; this was going to be easier than she thought.

The Schnee heiress stepped back from the tree, facing Ruby again.

"Good. But, what if you wanted to keep it alive? Capture it for study?"

Another shot sounded off. Weiss looked at the target again and saw exactly what she wanted to see. The bullet had pierced the beowolf's skull, about an inch below its left eye.

"Why did you shoot there?" asked Weiss.

"Because they pass out when you shoot 'em there."

"What would happen if you shot a little higher?"

"Well, I guess I'd just hit the brain and it'd probably die pretty fast."

Weiss felt like a guided missile homing in on her target.

"So what are you hitting if you aim below the brain, right under the eye like you did?" she asked.

"The perinimal gland," replied Ruby without hesitation.

She clapped a hand over her mouth in pleasant surprise.

"Weiss!"

The older girl crossed her arms with a look of satisfaction. She didn't want to celebrate yet, though. They'd only just begun.

"And why does that gland affect the beowolf that way?"

Ruby paused, but their study exercise began to jog her memory. She recalled the weight of Crescent Rose in her hands, absorbing the recoil into her shoulder as she once executed this very attack on a beowolf. She remembered an odd yellow goo leaving the entry wound, just below the left eye. The memories began to fit themselves neatly into a vague recollection of one of Professor Port's lessons, like pieces of a puzzle.

She snapped her fingers in revelation.

"It secretes something that numbs pain so the beowolf can keep fighting even if it's really badly hurt. If you bust the gland open it releases too much and just knocks them out cold."

Weiss could almost feel her blood pressure start to drop. She allowed herself a sigh of relief before giving Ruby a faint smile.

"Very good, Ruby," she said. "But don't put the gun away. We've got a lot more to cover and only what's left of this lunch period to cover it." She ignored a cheeky remark about her partner's speed as she retrieved more lesson materials from her bag.

For the next half hour, the sky was full of gunshots punctuated by the odd whoop of delight as the two continued their work.

The lecture hall was full of the sounds of pencils scribbling. A portly professor slowly strolled around the room, periodically glancing at students' work. Weiss saw him stop at Ruby's desk, but his expression was unreadable. She never could decipher anything through his substantial facial hair.

Instead, she snuck a glance at Ruby. The red tips of her dark hair swung lazily as she worked. Weiss had to give her credit; she was definitely trying. Their unconventional study session had gone much better than the night before, but Weiss still worried that Ruby wouldn't be so sharp without the weapon in her hand.

 _No sense fretting about it now_ , she thought. The only thing for her to do now was to score as high as she could on her own paper. She hunkered down over her test and continued her work.

* * *

The day continued uneventfully. As classes drew to a close, Team RWBY went about their usual evening business. Yang spirited Ruby away on whatever errand she'd wanted to run the previous day, leaving a relatively quiet dorm room for the other two teammates. Weiss and Blake didn't have a particularly warm friendship, but they maintained a mutual respect and never really got on each other's nerves.

Weiss sat at her desk doing homework while her faunus teammate laid in bed with a book, occasionally exchanging some idle chatter.

"You really spent all night trying to teach her?" asked Blake.

Weiss nodded without looking up from her paper. She flipped her pencil around to erase something.

"Yes. It was pretty impressive. You wouldn't _believe_ the lengths I went to trying to get through to her; I spent almost as long researching private tutors as I did trying to apply their methods in our study session."

"Did you try the alligator method?"

"Mm-hmm."

Blake looked up from her book, with a questioning look on her face.

"I can't believe she was willing to sacrifice the whole day just to study."

Weiss completed the paragraph she was writing and put the pencil down for a moment, giving Blake a sideways glance.

"I may have led her to believe that I'd fail the class if she didn't pick up her grades."

Blake gave an uncharacteristic snort.

"Maybe if you were already a borderline academic failure. We both know your grades are so high that she could fail every test for the rest of the year and you'd still pass with flying colors."

"I know," replied Weiss, starting on the next homework problem. After a few seconds, she could feel an uncomfortable stare and turned to see the black-haired girl wearing a very Yang-like grin on her face.

"...What?" asked Weiss suspiciously.

"Why are you _that_ concerned that she doesn't fail?" asked Blake.

Weiss gave a second's hesitation as she realized that she wasn't entirely sure. She reached back to her highborn upbringing for an answer.

"Because I'm a Schnee and no partner of mine is going to be a failure," she said with a hint of annoyance, returning to her homework.

Blake was savvy enough to know the end of a conversation when she heard one, but she did make an I-don't-quite-believe-you hum before picking up where she left off in her book.

* * *

Professor Port was handing back the tests. Ruby fidgeted as he slowly made his way around the lecture hall, stopping at each student to thumb through the pile of papers in his hand. She'd answered all the questions, hadn't she? Usually she couldn't even attempt the tougher ones.

He stopped at her desk. She gave him a nervous smile. His moustache glanced at her briefly before finding her test.

A paper landed on the desk in front of her. She looked at it. The test looked back. Ruby's mouth moved silently as she struggled to say something but couldn't find any words.

"Very impressive work, Miss Rose. I hope you make a similar effort on your future tests."

He moved on to Weiss while Ruby just continued to stare at the big '100%' scrawled in red marker at the top of her test.

After a few seconds, she remembered how to be alive again and looked at her partner sitting next to her. Weiss appeared to be in equal shock, looking over at Ruby's mark. Her own paper sat in front of her with a '96%' written at the top.

"You _aced it!?"_


End file.
